The fact that Cleopatra was a figure of ‘storial sothe’ made her less easy to dismiss than the great witch Medea and the other heroines of mythology. Cleopatra had a staggering effect on the men of her time, many of whom were instrumental in forming the minds of the Middle Ages. She was perceived by her contemporaries as lustful, greedy, changeable, moving from man to man; she wished to rule Rome itself and transfer the seat of power to Egypt. The historical Cleopatra embodied in the most threatening fashion what was then conceived of as the nature of Woman. That she conformed so neatly to a preexisting stereotype is no coincidence; even in her own lifetime, as has recently been suggested, the shape that was being given to her written story was constructed under the aegis of her and Antony's political enemy, the emperor Augustus. Chaucer might apply the cachet of ‘storial sothe’ to her story, but it was no less a ‘fable’ than those of the other heroines of the Legend of Good Women.

Cleopatra was a strong motivating force behind her contemporary Vergil's creation of Dido, another African queen who almost succeeded in distracting the founder of Rome from his destiny.